The year
Nights of the year
Festivals and observances still kept today for figures in the Codex — when they fall, where they are held, and the source for each.
Each entry describes what is observed and when, in the words of the source cited beneath it, and links to the figures the Codex already holds. None of them says what an observance means — that belongs to the communities who keep it, not to this site.
- JulyJuly and August, over twelve days
Osun-Osogbo festival
Osogbo, NigeriaKept today
An annual processional festival through the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, the forest along the Osun river dedicated to the goddess of fertility. It is held every year over twelve days, to re-establish the bonds between the goddess and the people of the town, and sustains the living cultural traditions of the Yoruba people.
- Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- AugustAugust, over ten days
Sango Festival, Oyo
Oyo, NigeriaKept today
The Sango Festival of Oyo marks the beginning of the Yoruba traditional new year, held near the ancient Koso temple over ten days. It commemorates Tella-Oko, the third alaafin of the Oyo Empire, held to be an incarnation of Sango, the Yoruba divinity of thunder and lightning. It opens on Yoruba New Year's Eve, when devotees share roasted new yam and palm oil.
- Sango Festival, Oyo · UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (inscribed 2023)
- SeptemberSeptember or October, over ten days
Durga Puja
Kolkata, West Bengal, and the Bengali diasporaKept today
An annual festival marking the ten-day worship of the mother-goddess Durga. It is celebrated most notably in Kolkata, and also elsewhere in India and among the Bengali diaspora. Clay images of the goddess are made in the months beforehand and immersed at its close.
- Durga Puja in Kolkata · UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (inscribed 2021)
- RecurringTwice each year
Mazu temple fairs
Meizhou Island and the coastal provinces of ChinaKept today
Mazu, goddess of the sea, is celebrated twice each year in formal temple fairs, when the residents of Meizhou Island, farmers and fisherfolk suspend their work to make offerings. She is held to have lived in the tenth century on Meizhou, and to have died attempting to rescue the survivors of a shipwreck; the temple built in her honour is the centre of the observance.
- Mazu belief and customs · UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (inscribed 2009)